Just Another Hoop
by The Luggage
Summary: Enlistment might be just another hoop to jump through, but here and now, it's the most important hoop there is. Very, very mild language inside, hence the rating.


**AN:** Hullo! Wrote this, my own take on an Earthborn Shepard, a while ago, and once I remembered about it, figured it couldn't hurt to post. Enjoy!

**Disclaimer:** Hah, I only wish I owned Mass Effect. Alas, I do not.

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She saw the recruitment poster for the Alliance from a distance when she was ten, or at least when she figured she was about ten, and every single person on that poster had clean, white smiles, and not one of their faces was hollowed by hunger. People would ask Kire, later, why she signed up, and she'd always mention something vague about wanting to do her duty and serve the people of Earth. It was accurate, just not the whole truth. All that patriotic bull came later. She only ever told a few certain people that she'd joined not out of patriotic duty, but because she wanted to look like those people on the poster.

When she walked into the office, the recruiting officer on duty looked at her with the same expression she was used to seeing on the overworked and underpaid police officers on the streets. It said that he was watching her, and the only reason he hadn't thrown her out was because she hadn't actually done anything illegal. Yet. Kire didn't particularly care. She'd seen that kind of expression as long as she could remember - hell, since before she could remember, probably. It was almost understandable, really. Everything about her, from the pieced-together clothes to the ragged, choppy haircut, from the skinniness that came from chronic hunger to the wary, half-feral look in her eyes, said street kid. Said it in capital letters, even. She didn't let his suspicion stop her, though, she just walked up to him and said she was eighteen and that she wanted to be a Marine. The officer - Captain Hargrove, according to the little sign on his desk - snorted.

"No way you're eighteen, kid. If you really want to enlist, come back in a few years," Hargrove said.

Kire narrowed her eyes at him. She'd always known she looked younger than she really was. Too skinny, too pale. Well, she couldn't help the first one, and she'd never seen the point of tanning herself, not after that nasty sunburn back when she was ten-ish.

"I am so eighteen, and here's my birth cert to prove it," she announced, holding it out to the Captain. It was the best forgery she could buy, helped along by the fact that not only had she been saving for it for years, one of the best forgers in the city was part of the Reds. Besides, it was mostly accurate. Kire really was eighteen, or at least thereabouts, and she knew her birthday was somewhere in the spring. It hadn't been hard to pick out a date for herself, one that would be hers.

Hargrove scanned the cert for a moment, and then set it aside with a sigh. "Look...Kire," he said with a pause. "I get a couple street kids here every week, looking to enlist. Not one of 'em has made it past the paperwork, never mind basic training. What makes you so special that you won't be just another waste of my time? Why should I even start the paper trail for you?"

Kire stopped to consider. She honestly hadn't expected a question like this, had just sort of vaguely thought that he'd just stamp her papers and send her along to pick up her gun and her uniform. From the cynical expression on his face, he knew what she was thinking, and was not impressed. Something told her that this would not be a good time to bluff her way through, that he would be able to see through anything that wasn't the truth.

"I don't want to be hungry anymore," she blurted, startling him out of shuffling the papers on his desk. "I don't want to be a gang member, I don't wanna be like the whores on the corners. I want to be in charge and I want to be someone. I know it'll be hard, I've seen the vids about the battles. But it's gotta be better than...out there, you know? And I can do it. I know I can." The bravado left Kire abruptly, but she clenched her fists in her pockets and stared at the Captain's desk. After a few moments, when he didn't say anything, she looked up.

Captain Hargrove looked hard at her, and then his face relaxed into a half-smile. He pulled a new stack of papers towards him, and as he began to stamp them, he commented, "You know, I think you can. Or at least, you genuinely think you can. And sometimes, that's enough. Sign here, please."

Kire didn't move, just stared at him.

Now he looked up, impatient. "Sign here, or don't you want to be a Marine? I don't have all day."

She carefully took the pen he offered, and in a painfully tidy script, signed herself into the Marines. Hargrove whisked the paper away, then presented her with a sealed envelope.

Briskly, he said, "Take that to the office three doors down the hallway. They'll get you started. Hurry up now, I think the next transport leaves in two days, and if you can jump all the hoops before then, you'll be at boot camp that much sooner."

She headed towards the door, trying to thank him, though she suspected it was mostly babble at this point. Just before she closed the door, though, he called to her.

"Welcome to the Marines, Shepard."

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**Notes:** Reviews and/or concrit will be adored and loved and given a wonderful home.


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